President's Vision & Priorities

In January 2008, when she assumed the presidency, President Renu Khator launched a “100 Days” drive to gather comments on how to help the University of Houston move to Tier One status. More than 12,000 suggestions were received from the UH students, faculty, staff, and alumni, as well as donors, friends, and civic and community leaders. These suggestions were categorized and prioritized into “big rocks” and “small rocks,” the “big rocks” being goals and initiatives of broad interest and importance.

After a series of meetings, retreats, and open forums, six strategic goals were adopted by the UH System Board of Regents, and four “big rocks”, or major initiatives toward Tier One, were announced by President Khator at her investiture.

To identify action items in support of the six strategic goals, President Khator appointed a nine-member Strategic Action Group (SAG) in the fall of 2008. SAG was led by a number of UH’s most distinguished faculty members, and included the presidents of the Student Government Association and the Staff Council. Six committees – one for each goal – met, deliberated, and presented their recommendations to the UH community at a series of town hall meeting. The next step in the SAG process is to begin implementing the recommendations.

Concurrent with the adoption of the six strategic goals, a comprehensive “Progress Card” for each of the four UH System universities was created as a means for the Board of Regents and the university presidents to track progress toward their respective university’s goals. The first set of Progress Cards was presented to the Board of Regents at their retreat in June 2009. In addition, a UH System progress card was also developed and presented to the board.

National Competitiveness: UH will become a nationally competitive public research university as measured by the Top American Public Research University and/or Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Student Success: UH will have a student profile consistent with a nationally competitive public research university by creating an environment in which student success can be ensured.

Community Advancement: UH will commit to fulfilling regional and state workforce needs while becoming the primary engine of social, economic, and intellectual development.

Athletic Competitiveness: UH will provide a comprehensive educational experience to its students and within this context, it will seek to build the strongest athletic program possible.

National and Local Recognition: UH will be known for its accomplishments locally and nationally.

Resource Competitiveness: UH will build a resource base that enables it to accomplish its mission and realize its vision.